Matthew 13:31-32: The Lesser of All Seeds

"Good, better, best; never let it rest; until your good gets better, and your better gets best!"  

So many pseudo-Bible Scholars love to look at the mustard seed (ref. to Matt. 13:31-32) and tout that the Bible is wrong, because the seed is not the smallest.  While the mustard seed is approximately 1/20th of an inch in size, with the smaller petunia seed about 1/50th of an inch and the yet smaller begonia some 1/100th of an inch in scale.  Even yet the smaller orchid seeds are so tiny that a 10x to 30x microscope is required for the eye to see it in any detail. Furthermore, the microscopic spores of mushrooms, lichens, and molds, which also are seeds, are so tiny and lightweight that even the slightest currents of air may carry them vast distances. These too are seeds for the word spore itself means "seed." Therefore the mustard seed is technically not the smallest seed of all. The objection has been pressed even further to say something like, "Since the mustard seed isn't the smallest of all seeds then Jesus was wrong, and if Jesus was God and made everything, He should have known that the mustard seed is not the smallest seed!

The sad part is NO God fearing Bible Scholar has ever called them to the carpet!  Why… WHY… doesn't anyone look at the Greek?!?  The word MIKROTERON (translated small, less in verse 32) is a Comparative, NOT a Superlative.  Don't believe me?  Look it up.  I double-dutch dare you.

Allow me to give you a quick lesson on adjectives.  Adjectives are used to describe nouns.  An example is, "This is a SMALL seed."  But then you have a next level of adjectives, called Comparatives.  While an adjective would be used by saying, "this is a small seed,"  a comparative would state, "this is a smaller seed."  It is an adjective that is used to compare, hence the name: Comparative.  But then we have the next step, which is called a Superlative.  Superlatives include, but are not limited to highest, greatest, grandest, etc., etc., etc. So, if we used a superlative in this sentence, it would state, "this is the smallest seed."  Understand?

The accurate translation for verse 32 is, "Which indeed is the LESSER of all the seeds….".  

Now, ask yourself the question, why is our Lord and Savior using a comparative instead of a superlative?  Why?  You cannot argue with the Greek as you sometimes can with the English.  This adjective is a comparative and not a superlative.  So, again I ask, why is God's Word using a comparative and not a superlative.  The answer is simple, and comes in two parts.  

1.)  Christ, being Creator, knows that the Mustard seed is not the absolute smallest seed.  If the Bible was in fact stating that the mustard seed was the smallest, it would not use the comparative MIKROTERON, but the true superlative: ELAXISTOS (which btw, means smallest, least).  Yet it does not!  

2.)  He is also not using this parable to teach science, but to teach a moral.  What seed is so small as a mustard seed, yet grows to be so huge?  A petunia?  No.  A mushroom?  Nope.  It's the mustard seed.

Let God be true, and every man a liar…. – Romans 3:4